The door
by The Mome Raths Outgrabe
Summary: Rory while he was Roman and waiting.


**Summary: Rory while he was roman and waiting. **

**A/N: So I started watching the 5th season of Doctor who again and this one came to my mind after I finished with it. **

* * *

He heard a small noise in the dead of night and his eye immediately followed to the source. She was seven, her body tiny and underfed snugged tightly in a blanket sharing body warmth with a nearby person. Rory sighed as he continued to look down at her.

This was not something he meant to happen. No, Rory had meant to fade into the background, preferably underground unnoticed because that is what made Amy the safest. But when she had come to him he hadn't been able to turn her away and when she had brought others he hadn't been able to turn them away either. There were all 7 all children from villages just a few hours away by foot.

Didyma rolled over slightly bringing her body slightly closer to himself. Rory huffed this time as the reason there were kids surrounding him was shown in the weak torchlight slightly illuminating the dark and deep cave. Bruises marred the skin on the arm of the small girl. Children weren't always taken care of here. Many times treated as property and with little to no laws to protect them. If he had blood now it would be boiling. Who could hit a child especially their own? It wasn't something he had ever been able to understand. It was hard enough when he had run into that as a nurse but at least as a nurse, there had been legal channels for him to go through.

Now...now it was definitely more complicated. The doctor told him to stay out of trouble. He had finally figured that was what the doctor meant to have said after he failed in doing so. Trouble wasn't something he had usually personally really had trouble with. Amy and Mels had always been the one in trouble and that had always been close enough for him. Then the doctor always getting the three of them into trouble. Not to mention he was plastic, any injury would stay forever But the most important thing was Amy, he couldn't leave her to go chasing after men, he wasn't even sure what he would do if he could.

Regardless, he couldn't let any harm come to the children, even if it was all he could do he would protect these children if someone came after them and protect them physically. Even if that meant sometimes leaving Amy for short periods to provide food and water for them.

"Mr. Centurion?" he jolted as he hadn't heard her wake up and she was now just feet from him standing up. If she was an enemy she might have been able to get to the box before he was aware, and that was not acceptable. Didyma looked scared forcing himself out of his thoughts, the children often did especially at night. They were in a dark cave with only torches bringing light. She opened her mouth like was wanted to say something but wasn't able to make it come out.

Rory only could think of one way to help and opened his arms. The frightened girl ran into his arms and hugged him. She stayed in arms for a long moment much longer than any other time before she broke the hug with a smile on her face, that dazzling smile with a couple of missing teeth. In a few short weeks, he could already feel affection for this girl, for all the children but especially for this girl. She was the one who sought him out who had tried to get him to feel something for someone beside Amy again.

The last time that had happened it had ended badly. Faces flashed through his mind, many faces, as it also wasn't the first time it had ended badly. Wasn't the first time he had failed to stay out of trouble. He was starting to understand the doctor more and more as time went on. The sadness he could see in his eyes when he thought no one was looking because even when it went right, even when there no trouble and there often was, you still had to say goodbye to anyone you cared about and much quicker than he was used to. They did not have his life span and lived in an area where it was normal to die by the age of 35 and often times much sooner. Despite living many years in isolation he had also grieved many people in many different ways.

She laughed slightly bringing him away from his thoughts for a moment. He found himself smiling back at her only partially to reassure her.

"Now it's time to go back to bed," he said warmly but trying his best to be stern. He hadn't expected to be a father until Amy woke up and maybe not a few years afterward. But this girl, she was worming her way into his heart, plastic though it was. She yawned widely and grabbed her blanket and set it down right in front of him. She looked at the ground shyly for a second before looking back at him.

"Will you tell me a story?" she asked quietly looking around at the torches on the wall and shivering slightly with what was most likely fear not cold. He nodded after a moment, it wasn't like he slept anyway. She settled down under the blanket and her dark eyes focused on him. There was only one story he could think to tell.

"There was once a princess and a raggedy man…"

* * *

Rory shot up in bed, breathing slightly hard as he looked around the room. Bedside table, drawers, double closet...and Amy. Amy was still dead asleep for which he was grateful. As much as he loved her he didn't want to have to explain, mostly because he didn't know how. He leaned over her and smoothed some of her red hair behind her ear. He had never told her about the memories. Rory had told the doctor once but that had been the only time it had been mentioned and he was grateful.

Rory wasn't lying about there being a door in his mind. There was and the things he lived in that other timeline stayed firmly behind that door. When he was awake. When he was asleep, memories seeped through the doors. Good ones, but more often bad ones but mostly from the 2000 years he had been waiting for Amy.

He took in a long deep breath trying to start the process but the girl's face flashed into his mind again distracting him. Did she exist? Did she exist in this timeline? Did she live? In the other timeline? In this one? Was she happy? At least some of these answers were locked in his own mind. Her fate good or bad was available to him and he wanted to know but also knew that he couldn't know.

Because behind that door in his mind lied 2,000 years' worth of memories and in those memories, there was pain, so much pain, loneliness and madness in there. He could feel it anytime he prodded at the door, could feel it wanting to devour him, swallow him whole.

There was only one thing he could do, Rory had to put the dream away, whenever he woke up no matter the dream, he had to firmly put it behind the door again. It was the only way to survive.


End file.
